1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device and an error management system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various electronic devices such as personal computers, cellular phones, printers, multifunction peripherals, and household electrical appliances are composed of hardware devices such as CPU (Central Processing Unit) and memory, as well as software executed by the CPU. These hardware devices and software included in the electronic devices malfunction in many ways due to multiple causes occurring while various processings such as operational processing, communication processing, and standby processing are carried out. For instance, when the electronic device includes software with a design defect, grave malfunctions occur. Examples of these grave malfunctions include the electronic device operating in a way contrary to what the developer of the electronic device intended, and the electronic device not starting up. When the electronic device malfunctions in these ways while the electronic device is being developed, the developer will analyze the malfunction and will identify its cause. When the malfunction occurs while the electronic device is being manufactured, the manufacturer will analyze the malfunction and will identify its cause. When the malfunction occurs while the electronic device is on sale, the personnel in charge of maintenance work will analyze the malfunction and will identify its cause. In general, the personnel analyzing the malfunction identifies its cause based on error information such as an error log file including records of the operations performed by various functions of the electronic device, as well as records of the results of these operations.
An example of related technology is a framework that writes into an external memory medium, all of the error information and production information stored in a control device of a semiconductor manufacturing device, and displays on a screen, the error information and the like obtained from the external memory medium.
The framework described above stores all of the various error information into an external memory field that is portable and can be easily exchanged. Thus, it is possible to analyze the error information at a place outside of a clean room equipped with a control device.
However, errors include fatal errors and trivial errors. The error information concerning both of these errors is stored in the same way. In such a case, the error information concerning fatal errors is effectively used to identify the cause of the error. Meanwhile, error information concerning trivial errors is not necessarily used to analyze errors. As a result, error information concerning trivial errors is sometimes wasted even though it is saved. When such trivial errors occur frequently, unnecessary error information accumulates in the memory field in which error information is stored. Consequently, there will not be enough free space available in the memory field.
Another example of related technology is a framework that displays an error message on a screen of an application (hereinafter may be referred to as the “application screen”) when an error occurs while the application is running. When a user presses a “CLOSE” button displayed on the screen showing the error message (hereinafter may be referred to as the “error message screen”), the framework stores into a memory, an image data of the error message screen and the application screen located below the error message screen.
However, the framework described above saves the screen that was displayed after the user pressed the button after a certain amount of time has passed since the error occurred. Furthermore, the framework saves the screen that was displayed after a display control processing and an operation control processing have been performed on the error that occurred. As a result, the application screen that is saved is different from the application screen that was displayed at the time the error occurred. Thus, the saved application screen might not be used to identify the cause of the malfunction.
In addition, according to the framework described above, the personnel analyzing the malfunction recognizes that error information is stored in the memory, when the error information is displayed on the liquid crystal display based on a command to output the error information. Consequently, even though the error information is stored in the memory due to the occurrence of the error, the personnel analyzing the malfunction cannot recognize immediately after the error occurs that the error information has been stored.
Moreover, when the error message is being displayed and the reset timer times out or the user resets the framework by manipulating certain buttons, the setting values of the various settings of the display on the application screen may be reset and may return to the default value. Even though the reset application screen is stored based on this framework, there may not be any information left that would be useful for analyzing the malfunction.
Furthermore, even though the operation at the time of the error can be recognized through the saved application screen, the operation before the error and the log of the user's operation cannot be recognized.
In this way, the frameworks based on the related art cannot adequately save the information useful for analyzing the malfunction. Therefore, the malfunction cannot be analyzed efficiently.
Considering the problems described above, a first object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device that can maintain enough free space in the memory field in which the error log is stored. A second object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device that can further enhance the efficiency of analyzing malfunctions. A third object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device and an error management system that can more rapidly respond to errors when the errors occur. A fourth object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device that can further enhance the efficiency of analyzing malfunctions by reliably obtaining information that is useful for the analysis.